Healthy Living from inside, out

Drug Store News speaks with Julie Greene, director of Healthy Living at Hannaford.

Drug Store News: In 2010, Hannaford is looking to reach even more shoppers by providing an open class format on the sales floor. Can you elaborate on that effort?

Julie Greene: We started teaching courses on eating for heart health. We have partnered with hospitals to bring in newly diagnosed diabetics, as we have some certified diabetes educators on our staff of registered dieticians. That is where the pharmacy and our program come together: How do we help our shoppers follow their doctor’s orders? How do we comply with prescription meds? And how do we comply on the nutrition side that goes hand in hand with that? What we are hoping to do this coming year is to broaden that, not only to people who are trying to manage a condition, but also to people who are just trying to maintain everyday health. We are looking at a classroom that can be mobile and that can invite people to come up and spend a couple of minutes, whereas the courses we have been offering on blood sugar management and heart health have been in a conference room, so you may not see it as you walk by.

DrSN: How do you make the community aware of such classes?

Greene: A variety of different ways. We do have an e-newsletter that we send out that people can sign up for on our Web site, and we will be growing that list. We also have a program called Healthy Saver, and when you register for Healthy Saver, you can opt in and say, “please send me information on health-related events at my closest Hannaford.” We also have a Catalina program,…and we are going to be creating awareness of our classes through that.